Crime Pays in Congress as Rangel Uses Democrats in Cover Up

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Leave it to Charles Rangel to use his long relationship with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and his well rehearsed theatrics to make a mockery of the Pelosi ethics crackdown on her fellow Congressmen. Once Pelosi's chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means tax writing committee, Rangel virtually assured his continued place in the House at taxpayer expense after fleecing the American taxpayer of hundreds of thousands in tax liability, an euphemism for being a tax cheat, on 13 counts.

To help protect the tax cheater, the chief Democratic counsel prosecuting Rangel actually pre-empted the entire ethics proceeding by proclaiming that Rangel was not corrupt and did not personally benefit from ignoring IRS audits claiming he cheated on his taxes on low cost apartments in NYC and a vacation villa in the Caribbean. Since when do prosecutors pronounce the person they are prosecuting not guilty before the Judges have even heard the evidence?

Now how many Americans could do that and walk away with a $200,000 salary and a gold mine of a pension? If ever there was proof for the travesty our national government has become the Charles Rangel and Nancy Pelosi affair is it.

The theatrics were great as Rangel, poor Rangel, pleaded he was being denied the right to counsel and denied the right to raise a defense fund. He didn't mention he has known about the charges for years and was formally charged last summer. He claimed he already paid $2 million to lawyers and did not have another $1 million they demanded.

Of course his law firm, ex-law firm, denied they refused to help him. Rangel then walked out of the hearing and refused to be a part of the House rules he seems to have ignored during his 50 years of government service.

The joke ws already clear when they scheduled his trial just days after the election.  Why let a guilty man win a seat in Congress before trial?  It makes it that much harder to get rid of him.  If he did nothing wrong then why did it already cost him $2 million in legal fees? Why will it cost $1 million more. Surely Nancy Pelosi is not going to force her committee chairmen to spend millions to defend themselves if they are innocent.

This is the joke congress has become!

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Friday the 13th and What a Week in Obamaville

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This was one wild week in the land of Oz, or Obamaville, whichever you choose to embrace.




The Democrats Corruption Scandal:


First on our list of highlights or low lights was the Charlie Rangel and Maxine Waters ethics cases. Good old Charlie first ruined Nancy Pelosi's House vote on the "teacher bailout", or "let's make a deal vote Washington style" when he used an obscure House rule to take control of the press filled chamber to seek dignity over his treatment on ethics charges.


It was a passionate plea for something and an invitation to his birthday bash on Thursday night at the most expensive place in New York City, the Plaza Hotel. Not exactly the image one might want when fighting charges you stole money from the taxpayers but Charlie was able to get over his blues at the party while a handful of Democrats and NYC Mayor Bloomberg shared the night.

The ethics panel set his trial for the day before the fall election, November 1 which was a bit strange unless you were Pelosi and wanted to make sure it was too late to impact on the Obama referendum which it is. So at least she won that battle. Preacher Sharpton made his case to canonize Charlie after his resurrection which was a nice Biblical way to disguise corruption and he pleaded the case for dignity. I am a little confused on how someone who stole hundreds of thousands of dollars while presiding over the taxation of all American citizens deserves dignity but the Democrats seem to have a different way of looking at the world.


As for Maxine, she is intent on more discussion of her charges and seems content letting the probe focus on what her chief of staff, her son, did and how she was not aware. If she wants to throw her son under the wheels of the ethics bus that's okay but I worked for several congressmen and it is the job of their staff to keep the congressman informed of everything good and bad going on. You would think she had better communication with her own son unless his role was to insulate her from prosecution.


The Teacher Bailout Bill:


In the meantime Pelosi did get her $26 billion teacher bailout thus rewarding the teachers unions for their campaign support but the explanation for how it was paid for this year with food stamp money from 2014 and why she did not let the governors decide how to use the money instead of telling them what to do makes George Bush, Sr. and his "voodoo economics" seem lame by comparison. When the Obama spending spree is measured by an increase of trillions and trillions of dollars in our national debt, what is $26 billion more.

Obama Press Secretary Gibb's Meltdown:


This week also saw the meltdown of Gibb's during a White House interview. During an interview with The Hill in his West Wing office, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs blasted liberal naysayers, whom he said would never regard anything the president did as good enough.


“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said. “I mean, it’s crazy.”


The press secretary dismissed the “professional left” in terms very similar to those used by their opponents on the ideological right, saying, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”


Of those who complain that Obama caved to centrists on issues such as healthcare reform, Gibbs said: “They wouldn’t be satisfied if Dennis Kucinich was president.”


Gibbs said the professional left is not representative of the progressives who organized, campaigned, raised money and ultimately voted for Obama.


Since he is as close to Obama and Rahm Emanuel as anyone we must assume he was parroting their attitude toward the left. So now they have alienated the far left and much of the Democrats base for support not to mention the Independents and Republicans w3ho supported Obama..

Obama Vacation Mania:


The first family is still stinging from the criticism over Michelle Obama's "private" vacation with her daughter to Spain for a few hundred thousand in tax dollars and no one has explained why she was vacationing at a five star Spanish resort instead of being with Barack at his birthday party in Chicago. Of course why they needed ten vacations this year might also be a good question.

The Colorado Primary:


Several states held their primary elections this week and in Colorado it was an Obama boy against a Bill Clinton boy in the race for Senate. Obama won and the Washington media declared the fall election over, that Obama was now going to beat back the challenge. Fat chance though the Republicans sure have not earned the right to wallop Obama. Luck for them they happen to have lost two straight elections to the Democrats. The people, as I discussed in two previous articles, will do what the politicians and news media will not, they will clean out the swamp in our nation's capitol.


Why the News Media is on Life Support:


Finally, if you want to see proof the news media is long past it's prime consider this strange sequence of news coverage. At the beginning of this week we learned that ten humanitarian workers were executed in Afghanistan including six Americans. The slaughter was done in one day. People who had dedicated their lives to help others and were volunteers in the war zone gave up life to serve.


Yet by Monday night Charlie Rangel's rant on the House floor was the headline. Come Tuesday little boy JetBlue stole the show by mouthing off to passengers, stealing a couple of beers and jumping down the escape slide of an airplane, making him the new media folk hero.


His story carried the media until Obama's non-victory in Colorado Wednesday, then back came the sky pilot Thursday and Rangel's Plaza party Thursday night and Friday. This is what dominated the news this week in America.

Here are the ten people who died in Afghanistan and whose story was lost by the stupid entertainment stories in the national news.


-- Mahram Ali, 50: Wardak, Afghanistan


Ali worked as a watchman at the National Organisation for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation's (NOOR) maintenance workshop, a position he had held since 2007, the mission said. "He stayed behind guarding the vehicles in Nawa when the rest of the team walked over the pass into Nuristan." He is survived by his wife and three young children.


-- Cheryl Beckett, 32: Ohio, United States


Cheryl Beckett had been working in Afghanistan since 2005 with a focus on nutritional gardening and mother-child health.


As a student at Indiana Wesleyan University, Beckett, a minister's daughter, developed a global passion for justice and love during her travels to Honduras, Mexico, Kenya and Zimbabwe, according to her obituary.


The IAM said she was a Pashto speaker who had been asked to assist the medical team in translating for women patients. She had been working in Afghanistan since 2005 with a focus on nutritional gardening and mother-child health. She worked in a clinic in Pul-e Charkhi on the outskirts of Kabul. She is survived by her parents and three siblings.


"Cheryl loved and respected the Afghan people. She denied herself many freedoms in order to abide by Afghan law and custom," said a statement from her family released by the Woodlawn Christian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, where Beckett's father is pastor, according to CNN affiliate WVLT.


"She was honored to be included in this most recent three-week medical journey to the remote populations of Northern Afghanistan. ...Those who committed this act of terror should feel the utter shame and disgust that humanity feels for them."


-- Daniela Beyer, 35: Chemnitz, Germany


Beyer was a linguist and translator in German, English and Russian who also spoke Dari and was learning Pashto, the IAM said. She worked for the organization between 2007 and 2009 doing linguistic research and joined the eye camp so she could translate for women patients. She is survived by her parents and three siblings.


-- Brian Carderelli, 25: Pennsylvania, United States


Carderelli was a professional freelance videographer who worked with a number of Afghan development and humanitarian organizations throughout the nation, the IAM said. "Brian quickly fell in love with the Afghan people and culture and hoped to stay within the country for another year."


-- Jawed, 24: Panjshir, Afghanistan


Jawed was a cook at the Ministry of Public Health's Eye Hospital in Kabul, and had been released in order to attend the Eye Camp as the team's cook. He also assisted with dispensing eyeglasses, the IAM said. He is survived by his wife and three young children. "Jawed had been on several eye camps into Nuristan in the past, and was well loved for his sense of humor," the organization said.


-- Dr. Thomas Grams: Durango, Colorado, United States


Grams was a dentist and a friend of team leader Tom Little, the IAM said.


He had been working with Global Dental Relief for 10 years, and had been to Afghanistan several times, as well as in Nepal, said Katy Shaw, an administrator with the group.


He was a general dentist who gave up his private practice to do relief work, Shaw said. Grams started as a volunteer with the group, which provides dental care for impoverished children, but later became a team leader.


-- Glen D. Lapp, 40: Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States


Glen D. Lapp, 40, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, worked for a charity that provides eye care and medical help.


On Sunday morning, Lapp's family received confirmation of his death from the U.S. Embassy, said the Mennonite Central Committee. Lapp worked for the International Assistance Mission, the Mennonite Central Committee's partner organization, which provides eye care and medical help in Afghanistan.


Lapp was trained as an intensive-care nurse and had worked in Lancaster, New York, and Supai, Arizona, the IAM said. He also was a response worker after hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck the Gulf Coast. He came to Kabul in 2008, and worked at the IAM headquarters. After five months of Dari language training, Lapp began working with the National Organisation for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation. He was responsible for organizing mobile eye camps in the remote areas of Afghanistan.


-- Tom Little, 61: New York, United States


Tom Little, here with his wife Libby, had recently become involved in a program to eradicate preventable blindness.


Little, the team leader, was an optometrist who was affectionately known as "Mister Tom" among staff at the National Organization for Ophthalmic Rehabilitation, the IAM said. He arrived in Afghanistan in 1976 with his family and worked as NOOR's optometrist and manager, setting up clinics and workshops.


"He was much loved by both foreigners and Afghans, and was the inspiration for other IAM team members coming to Afghanistan," the IAM said. He is survived by his wife, Libby, and three daughters.


Little's wife, Libby, confirmed the death. She said she knew the worst had happened when she didn't hear from her husband after 24 hours. She described a system they established years ago -- he would give her a short, 30-second call every 12 hours to let her know he was okay. When two cycles went by without a call from her husband, she said she knew something was wrong.


Little had recently become involved in a program to eradicate preventable blindness by the year 2020, his wife said.


"He would come back to the States and get throw-away optical equipment, then refurbished it, then would send it over to set up a little optical manufacturing factory, so they could make their own eyeglasses there," Libby Little said about her husband.


-- Dan Terry, 63: Wisconsin, United States


Terry came to Afghanistan in 1971, the IAM said, and "had a heart for the rural areas of Afghanistan." He worked for many years in the Lal-wa Sarjangal district of the country. "Dan specialized in relating to local communities and liaising with aid organizations and the government to improve services in remote areas," IAM said. He is survived by his wife, three daughters and one granddaughter.


-- Dr. Karen Woo, 36: Britain


The British Foreign Office confirmed Woo's death Sunday. The IAM said she was a general surgeon who joined the Nuristan Eye Camp to be the team's doctor and to help promote maternal health care in Nuristan communities.


Woo's friend, Firuz Rahimi, confirmed her death to CNN and said his friend gave up a comfortable life in London to work in Afghanistan.


Rahimi said he spoke with Woo three weeks ago, while she was packing for a trip with the assistance mission to Nuristan province.


He told CNN that Woo had medicine and medical equipment procured after a period of fundraising. Woo was excited about the trip but was fully aware of the risks she faced making this kind of journey, he said.


MAY THEIR SUPREME SACRIFICE FOR OTHERS NOT GO FORGOTTEN!


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Twiddle Dee and Twiddle Dum - Look out Democrats Here We Come - Paterson & Rangel

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Just in time for the fall elections it seems as if the new bad boys of the Democratic party are not going away nor going to get booted by the Democratic leaders. As Obama and the Democrats circle the wagons for a tough fall campaign their problems are compounded by the fact Governor David Paterson and Congressman Charles Rangel are refusing to resign from their posts thus keeping both in the public limelight and reinforcing to the public that our political establishment is corrupt.



Paterson started out bad enough when he took over as New York governor for Eliot Spitzer after a prostitution scandal cost Spitzer his governors office. Then just after taking the oath of office Paterson admitted to affairs while he was married. But the people of New York seemed to forgive him. Then he tried to use the power of his office to silence a woman who was beaten up by one of his aides.

This abuse of office would not go away and Paterson multiplied his problems by first sending two state troopers out to talk with her, then personally calling her the day before she was to testify on the beating. In the end their threats to get her to drop the charges scared her off and she refused to go to court. It was an abuse of authority that may not be forgiven by the New York voters. Paterson refuses to resign. Yet President Obama, the national and state Democratic parties refuse to condemn the actions.



Rangel today asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to give him a leave of absence as Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, one of the most powerful positions in Congress, in order to fight charges from the House Ethics Committee that he took numerous trips financed by corporations, a violation of House rules.



However, it is widely known that this is just the tip of the iceberg of corruption with Rangel as other investigations are underway including IRS inquiries into failing to pay taxes on apartments in NYC and foreign owned property among other issues. These will soon be added to the first House ethics charges and will make the most powerful tax Chairman in Washington defend himself from not paying taxes.

Of course Pelosi knows about all the investigations even though she has only commented on the first minor revelations and she could remove him permanently from being Chairman, or even ask that he be thrown out of the House which should happen if IRS files charges. Pelosi has defended Rangel, one might presume because she appointed him Chairman of Ways and Means, and continues to allow him to remain in the House. Obama, though both Paterson and Rangel were supporters, has refused to say anything as if this institutional corruption has nothing to do with him.



Since Obama campaigned against the Washington establishment and corruption in our nation's capitol and throughout politics it seems odd he would not comment on the cases. Notwithstanding their support for his campaign, there comes a time when one must disassociate themselves from corruption. Once again the Democratic party has had no comment as well.

If these two politicians are not thrown out of office before the election it will be yet another albatross for the president and example of how he said one thing during the campaign and did another once he was elected. Protecting potential crooks or abusers of power does not seem like a defensible position when it comes time for the people to vote again.



It is actions like these by our Washington and Wall Street leaders that caused the formation of the Tea Party Movement and that will further empower that movement this fall. Not to be overlooked is the role the media played in not covering these issues nor pressing for the facts when they started to leak out. Now, of course, the media are writing about it but for a long time they have known about it.



In one of the ironies of politics it was just a short time ago that Rangel called on the public to let his friend David Paterson finish his term in office. The New York Daily News headline shouted Rep. Charles Rangel, Congressman Gregory Meeks and Rev. Sharpton: Let Gov. Paterson finish his term. Now he has to worry about finishing his own term.

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Nancy Pelosi - The Siren of Capitol Hill - Leading the Democrats to Self-Destruction

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Princeton University has developed WordNet® a large lexical database of English, that offers the following definition of Siren. The first three definitions according to Princeton are; Noun. (n) Siren (a sea nymph (part woman and part bird) supposed to lure sailors to destruction on the rocks where the nymphs lived) "Odysseus ordered his crew to plug their ears so they would not hear the Siren's fatal song"; (n) enchantress, temptress, siren, Delilah, femme fatale, (a woman who is considered to be dangerously seductive) and (n) siren (a warning signal that is a loud wailing sound).



Take your pick, Pelosi captures the essence and spirit of all three and to have someone like that a heartbeat away from the presidency is a frightening proposition for America. Just remember this politician is second in line to become president of the United States after Vice President Joe Biden and she was only elected by voters from the 8th Congressional District in California with 134,767 votes. Did you hear me? Just 134,767 people in 2008 from San Francisco decided who will be second in line to be president of the United States and she would be president of over 300 million people.



I doubt she was what the legislators had in mind when they adopted the Presidential Succession Act of 1947, (3 U.S.C. § 19(e). In fact Constitutional lawyers question whether the 1947 law is even Constitutional because it was the first to mention the Speaker of the House and President Pro Tempore of the Senate in the line of succession. Neither was elected by the people of the US and neither serves more than a single Congressional District or State. In fact President James Madison warned against allowing people in the line of succession who were not elected nationally or part of the Administration serving the people.



Each time the Speaker of the House goes before the press our Siren acts more and more like a dysfunctional bobble head doll luring the Democrats to the precipice of destruction. A rather harsh view you might say of our most powerful member of the House. Now that is a scary thought in and of itself, but when you examine her record as Speaker over the past four years, yes two more years as Speaker than Obama has been president, it should shake you to the very bone. Pelosi delivered the votes to bailout Wall Street, to bailout the housing agencies guilty of leading America to the precipice of disaster, to bailout AIG and put billions of dollars into the coffers of Goldman Sachs and other financial houses who rewarded us with record executive bonuses, and with the economic stimulus act where we are still trying to find the jobs.



Of course Pelosi has been the screaming siren of health care reform Obamacare style which means a massive takeover of the health care system as determined by the government and Andy Stern, President of the SEIU. Do people really want the government and SEIU to manage our health care? I doubt it, Stern's own labor unions just rejected his management style of the union when they rejected his hand picked leadership in elections announced today for the SEIU 1021 health care union, based in Pelosi's own San Francisco area.



Pelosi has already announced she knows what is best for America and in spite of public opposition to the House and Senate health care bills, with their thousands of pages of bureaucratic gobble de gook that will ensure no one knows what is happening for decades to come, she announced she will slam it down the throats of Americans with a budget reconciliation bill, a technique that violates every principle of the reconciliation. In fact her technique has been condemned by Senator Robert Byrd, President Pro Tempore of the Senate who authored the reconciliation bill. This is who we want in line for the presidency?



Then there is the Pelosi pal Charles Rangel, her Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, the tax writing committee of the federal government. The House Ethics panel has already said Rangel violated House Ethics Rules and IRS and other Congressional committees are concluding several years of investigations of Rangel for tax fraud, tax evasion and a host of other ethics charges. Still Pelosi stands behind her hand picked chairman.



Add to that her Cap and Trade bill to end forever any chance America has to gain energy independence by using the oil, natural gas and coal we have right now and a host of other oddball legislative initiatives that will result in one employer in America, the government, regardless of the ability of the government to deliver services, be efficient or be honest and we are in a precarious leadership position.

Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated that she views her Speaker position as one giving her the right to determine what is best for America. Forget democracy, public opinion or bi-partisanship, Pelosi just continues to babble on about her vision of America and how she can circumvent the Constitution to get her way, which is what will happen if health care is approved as a budget reconciliation as she intends to do.



Never has the leadership of Congress been so disconnected from the public mood and opinion of the people and Pelosi is the poster girl for flaunting the power of Congress over the people to a degree we seldom see in our history. From covering up corruption in the House to backroom deals to give billions in bonuses to Wall Street executives, Pelosi is the epicenter of chaos and misrepresentation.



Sadly her actions are going to lead a lot of good Democrats to destruction in the next couple of elections and her co-responsibility with President Obama in adopting their agenda for America using every tool to circumvent our democracy from executive orders to budget reconciliation will impair our nation to an extent we have never witnessed before.



Let us hope the good Democrats grow tired of risking their reputation and the future of America to the whims of Pelosi, Stern and company before it is too late. If not the Republicans may find themselves in control sooner rather than later and not because they deserved it but because the Democrats could not back the current leaders of the House and Senate.

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Health Care Reform - What Summit? What Bi-Partisanship?

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The president held his long and tedious health care summit yesterday but was he really a summit moderator when the only thing he endorsed was the Democrats position in the House and Senate bills? How does one negotiate when they start out saying this is what I want? The entire political sideshow was an attempt by the Obama White House to make the Republicans look bad while helping Democrats keep from getting routed in the fall elections.



A few weeks ago the White House did catch the Republicans off guard but this time it just might have backfired. For it was Republicans in the form of Lamar Alexander, Tom Coburn and Paul Ryan who provided calm, reasoned arguments on behalf of the GOP regarding fraud, waste, competition and cost reduction proposals that have not been considered by the Democrats. In fact the performance by Coburn and Ryan was so dominating they might have become new Republican stars.

By the end of the session it was clear the Republicans had many good proposals for change in health care and that they had the facts to back up their proposals. More important, they were making an effort to be bi-partisan even though the deck was stacked against them. It is not the Republicans fault there is no health care, not when the Democrats have the votes if they really wanted health care. The only current obstruction to health care is the division within the Democrats. Pelosi and Reid cannot control their own members and need a scapegoat for their incompetence as leaders of the majority party.



In their opening statements House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Leader Reid were apparently so disgusted with the whole affair they couldn't look at the Republican speakers during the session and refused to embrace the GOP ideas, even when other Democrats were saying the ideas made sense. In fact they raised only partisan issues and were more than a little defensive. It was as if they already planned on going ahead without the Republicans and would try and ram comprehensive health care with all the secret deals and payoffs down our throats.

In fact Pelosi showed such little regard for the outcome she had Charles Rangel make the closing statement for the Democrat majority the same day a House Ethics panel said Rangel violated many House ethics rules with tax fraud and other ethics violations. Rangel, Pelosi's Chairman of our tax writing committee, seemed to have forgotten to pay taxes on apartments he owns in NYC, foreign investments, made illegal use of campaign funds and who knows what else. What a slap in the face to America when you flaunt tax cheats in a national forum.

Before the conference even closed, Harry Reid was proven wrong when he started the conference saying there was no truth to the rumor the Democrats planned to use the highly controversial Reconciliation rule to force a vote by simple majority in the Senate. His own staff and White House staff were already hard at work planning on the Reconciliation vote before the Easter break, in just four weeks. So a Summit that starts with false statements and no indication of a spirit of compromise wound up giving the public all the more reason to question the leadership, or lack thereof, of the Democratic majority.



Why is it health care reform means many different things to different people? Maybe they people in Washington should get their terminology straight before they make wild claims and declarations. The whole discussion with health care centers on why the United States has the most expensive health care in the world yet gets treatment that ranks 37th out of 191 countries. A secondary issue is what to do about health care for the uninsured. This will increase the cost to government.

Thus any discussion of reforming health care should first be based on lowering the cost or upgrading the service. If a proposal does not generate either result forget it. Federal government policy must be based on several key factors. Does the federal government have the legal and Constitutional authority to address each aspect of the policy proposed? Is there enabling legislation clarifying the role of the federal government in the specific aspect of the issue? Has the federal government appropriated the money to pay for that aspect of the issue?

Once a proposal passes these first tests then another series of requirements must be met. Is the current method of implementing the proposal the best use of government resources and funds or is there a better way to do it more cost effective and resulting in better program efficiency. One must first question whether our entire health care system is the best way to keep Americans healthy. This has not been done in any of the legislative proposals.



For example, there are alternative treatments including ancient techniques using herbs, acupuncture, acupressure, massage and numerous others that have been proven successful over the years that are used for health maintenance. These would include disciplines like Yoga, Tai Chi, and herbology, many from ancient Far Eastern cultures. Many are not allowed under health insurance plans even though they are ways to lower all health costs with preventive maintenance to the body.

The cost of these treatments is a fraction of any Western Medical cost for examination and testing to find problems to treat. The cost of a CAT scan can run up to $6,000, an MRI can cost $3,500 and myocardial perfusion scans may cost $5,000 - 6,000. This is the cost of the machine doing it's thing. There are addition fees for the appointment, doctor's analysis, cost for the clinic or hospital and on and on. The use of such scans is exploding, perhaps as a way to protect doctors from malpractice suits. CAT scans alone have quadrupled over a ten year period, myocardial perfusion scans increased 40% the last three years..

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) did a study, which analyzed three years (2005-2007) of medical data from nearly 1 million adults aged 18 to 64, and found that such procedures are bombarding a significant number, about 4 million Americans, with potentially cancer-causing doses of radiation. Yet the tests are often used in situations where their value hasn’t been proven. The study showed there are 163 imaging procedures performed on every 1,000 people in America. This includes the CAT scan and myocardial perfusion scans (a nuclear stress test used to evaluate the heart) and MRI. The first two tests accounted for 21 percent of the total number of procedures undertaken by the one million people in the study but more than 75 percent of the total exposure to radiation. That means is has cost about $6,000 plus just to examine the patient through imaging before any diagnoses or treatment has been undertaken. No wonder health care costs so much.



Another major issue with health care cost is what is being done to bring new treatments into the health care system. Our Food and Drug Administration approves new drugs in America whether those drugs are natural or fabricated. Major pharmaceutical corporations control the approval of new drugs and have spent up to $50 million getting new drugs through the FDA process. The fees from these drug companies paid to FDA give it millions of dollars in revenues.

How can a small company possibly get approval for new drugs or treatments when the maze of tests and the requirements for data by FDA drive the cost into the millions of dollars? Better yet, how many cures for cancer and other diseases are not available in America because small businesses cannot afford the fees and the companies refuse to sell out to the major pharmaceutical companies trying to force them into selling or attempting takeovers. These predator practices are encouraged by FDA whose revenue is dependent on the large drug companies.

We have only begun to root out the corruption in health care within the government, within the health care industry, between pharmaceutical companies and doctors, hospitals and clinics (kickbacks), between investment houses and stock of the health care providers, and who knows what else. Billions of dollars in unnecessary costs and fraudulent billings may be involved and billions more in investment capital and the manipulation of stock may be underway. Don't we need to get rid of the waste, corruption and fraud before we spend another trillion dollars on a broken system?



When President Obama and the Democrats try and ram their bill down the throat of the public abusing the Reconciliation rule of Congress and formally try to protect the secret deals and payoffs they intend to make it will be the beginning of the end of the current leadership of the House and Senate. It will provide the foundation for the taxpayer revolt and it will finally demonstrate that our charismatic president may indeed have more sinister goals than knowing what is good for the public.

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